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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29831124">Day Eight: Lashing out</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Authoranna/pseuds/Authoranna'>Authoranna</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Comfortember 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek, Star Trek: Enterprise</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, They get back together, is this a terrible answer to the lashing out prompt? probably, malcolm does stupid shit, set pre and post Two days and two nights, they get in a fight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:07:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,236</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29831124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Authoranna/pseuds/Authoranna</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Set pre and post season 1 episode 25, "Two Days and Two Nights", where the crew goes to Risa and it's not much of a vacation. Lt. Charlotte Watson and Lt Malcolm Reed get in a fight, they make up, there's some comfort I guess.<br/>I wasn't sure how to go from lashing out to comfort so this was my best attempt.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Malcolm Reed/OFC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Comfortember 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1999417</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Comfortember 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day Eight: Lashing out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I can’t believe you’re going down to paradise tomorrow and I have to stay up here and keep the ship running,” Charlotte groaned, leaning back in Malcolm’s desk chair. “Don’t you think it a little suspicious that the entire senior staff gets to go down? We have less than 200 people on board and those seem like some pretty weird odds.”</p>
<p>“No one cheated, I promise. And T’Pol isn’t going down, so not the entire senior staff,” Malcolm replied. “What, did you expect me to give up my vacation because you got the short end of the stick?”</p>
<p>“No, I don’t. Just, we finally have a chance to go on a vacation as a couple and we can’t, Malcolm.”</p>
<p>“So going to that planet where they thought we were married doesn’t count, then?” He stood up from his spot on the bed, beginning to pace.</p>
<p>“We were on an away mission! Travis and Hoshi were across the hall! They thought we were acting!”</p>
<p>“What about the Grand Canyon?”</p>
<p>“That was two years ago!”</p>
<p>“What is this really about, Charlotte? It’s not about me getting vacation time and you not. What’s going on?” He sat back down on the bunk, looking over at her.</p>
<p>“I’m fucking tired of our relationship being the best kept secret on this ship! No one knows that we’re together! If something happens to you, all your belongings will get shipped back to your parents and they’ll just throw them all away. We’ve been together for six years and you haven’t even acted like you want to marry me! Do you even love me, Malcolm?!”</p>
<p>“Get out,” he hissed. “How can you even ask me that? Just get out of here.”</p>
<p>“We’re through, then. I refuse to waste any more time on someone who doesn’t love me,” Charlotte answered before storming out of Reed’s quarters.</p>
<p>He put his head in his hands then, tears pricking at his eyes. <strong>Fine. Who needs her anyways? It’ll be more fun having freedom down there than if I was missing her constantly.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Malcolm had one plan for his time on Risa, and it involved lots of alien booze and finding some solitary company as Tucker’s wingman. “Expanding their cultural horizons” was what Trip had called it on their way to the planet. He’d find some alien woman, learn some xenobiology, and get rip-roaring drunk while Charlotte worked the next two days and two nights on the ship.</p>
<p>The bars on Risa were perfect for finding alien women, none of whom had seen a human before, let alone a male human. Finding a companion was easy with Trip at his side, remembering how to flirt after seven years of a relationship with its inside jokes and easy banter was harder. The booze helped, as did having Trip at his side to make comments about the women they saw. He hadn’t really looked at other women with any sort of real desire in so long he was sure he would find even human women almost alien-like in the Risan clothing.</p>
<p>When the two women had walked over to him and Tucker to share their table and some drinks, he knew he was going to get quite the lesson in xenobiology. It wasn’t quite the lesson he expected, however, as the aliens turned out to be shape-shifters and robbers. After being led to the basement of the club, the aliens had transformed from their voluptuous and scantily-clad shapes to their normal appearance, knocking out both Trip and himself.</p>
<p>When Malcolm awoke, his head hurt worse than any hangover he’d had before, a combination of the booze and stun ray. Both of them were stripped to their regulation blue underwear and shirts, their hands and feet tied. <strong>This was not what I had in mind when I wanted to take my clothes off with an alien... </strong>They eventually freed themselves after breaking a bottle, taking a walk of shame through the club back to their hotel.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Lt. Watson was in the shuttle bay when the shuttles began returning, catching a glimpse of Reed and Tucker in bathrobes and smelling strongly of booze. She rolled her eyes, not looking at Reed again as he walked towards her.</p>
<p>“Look, can we talk later?” Reed asked, stopping infront of her. She refused to meet his eyes, not giving an answer. “Charlotte, please. We need to talk.”</p>
<p>“What is there to talk about, Lieutenant? You obviously had the time of your life down there,” she spat.</p>
<p>“Just give me five minutes, Charlotte.”</p>
<p>“Fine; comm me when you’ve showered and don’t smell like a brothel puked on you.” She returned to her duties then, leaving Malcolm to go make himself presentable.</p>
<p>Charlotte rang the doorbell of Malcolm’s quarters an hour later, her shift finished for the day. He called her in, sitting at his desk. She continued to stand, knowing it would be a short conversation.</p>
<p>“How could you even think I don’t love you?” Malcolm asked quietly, looking up at her. “After all these years, all we’ve done. Three months ago I thought you had died and I was going to die soon and I wrote you a letter just to say I love you. You think just because I haven’t told anyone onboard that we’ve been together for six years that I don’t love you? That I’m ashamed of you? You’re the reason I accepted the position as armoury officer, so we could stay together. Anyone who sees me look at you knows I’m in love with you; Commander Tucker told me he was going to find me an alien on Risa so maybe I’d finally find my balls and tell you I’m in love with you, for Chrissake. Charlotte, I’ve been planning the perfect way to propose to you for years and I haven’t thought of something that does you justice.”</p>
<p>“I don’t want perfect, Malcolm, I just want you,” she whispered, sitting on the bed. “But what did you do on Risa? We were apart for two days and you get drunk and who knows what else and come back to the ship in your underwear.”</p>
<p>“We got robbed when we followed a couple aliens to the basement of a club on the premise of sex. I hated every minute of trying to flirt with those aliens or pointing them out to Tucker; none were as beautiful as you. I didn’t sleep with any of them. All I could think about was what you’d say about my choice in shirts and how you’d beg to go sailing or swimming without me if you were there and I’d be powerless to say no to you. Come here.”</p>
<p>The crying Charlotte sat on Malcolm’s knee, her face damp from tears that she wiped away quickly. “I’m sorry for what I said. I know you love me. I just, I was scared of what you’d do down there.”</p>
<p>“And I’m sorry you felt scared and that you could ever think I don’t love you or am ashamed of you. The entire ship knows I love you, they just don’t know that I managed to convince you to stay with me for so long,” he laughed. “When we get back to Earth, you can start planning the wedding. I’ll propose properly before then, once I find a way.”</p>
<p>“Promise?”</p>
<p>“I promise.”</p>
<p>“Even if I want Captain Archer to marry us?”</p>
<p>“Don’t get ahead of yourself, love.”</p>
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